The River Goes Nutty

WRSI ("The River," 93.9) has gone all wacky. I have previously noted their seeming inability to play anything involving distorted guitars. Well, now their playlist includes a very odd mixture of new adds. Sonic Youth, Clash, Pixies, Violent Femmes: Good. Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, and the Stones: Good, but not on your station. There is an absence of the former bands on area radio; I've seen no shortage of the latter.

But why not some, um, new music along the lines of the former? You do a nice job on the alt-country and AAA-type newish stuff, but if you're playing London Calling and Blister in the Sun, you could quite comfortably put in I Am Kloot, Mates of State, Mike Doughty, Arcade Fire, etc.

So: Hooray for trying to mix it up, but please resist the temptation to be a classic rock station. Push the limits on the new stuff, not by digging so far into the past...

Smoke-Free Rules -- Matt Hebert, etc.

I went to the Brass Cat in Easthampton last night, mostly to see Matt Hebert of Ware River Club. He was supposed to be the second set, but they shifted things around, apparently because he had a second gig (!) the same night.

This was, I think, my first venture out to see a local singer, and I was impressed. His solo album (streamable on the website) is a little droopy, but live it had more humor and life. He's clearly a good songwriter and, happily, he's got the singing voice to follow through...mostly. He admitted to having some rough spots, voice-wise, last night, due to excessive smoking the night before.

Which leads me to my second point: Smoke-free bars rule.

The second act was all of your high school social studies teachers playing Savoy Brown covers, featuring much cowbell. I left midway through, and so I didn't see the headlining Group DeVille.